8 THE DESPERATES- LSD (1966)

The Desperates hailed from Bregenz, and this single, which was released by the small German label CCA and distributed by Metronome in 1966, is the only thing they bequeathed to posterity. Peter Trinker, a busy German Beat promoter who acted as the band’s manager, booked his charges to a show in Osnabrück, where they were also given some studio time. A week later, the single started infiltrating the jukeboxes of Vorarlberg, and quickly established itself as a favorite among the remote province’s hipper teens.

Covering the British rowdies The Pretty Things’ drug anthem “LSD” might not have the most subtle of choices, but it definitely put Vorarlberg on the map in terms of a nascent subversive underground (and in a quite charming manner at that). Typical end of story: By the time the first rural inn owners decoded what LSD actually stood for, the Desperates had, of course, already called it a day.